Top Gear Rally
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| Top Gear Rally | |
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| Developer(s) | Boss Game Studios (Nintendo 64) Tantalus Interactive (Game Boy Advance) |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo 64 JP Kotobuki Systems NA Midway Games EU Kemco Game Boy Advance JP Kemco NA Nintendo EU Kemco |
| Series | Top Gear |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance |
| Release date | Nintendo 64 1997 Game Boy Advance 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
Top Gear Rally is a rally game for the Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. It features six tracks. It has a feature that allows the user to give their virtual cars custom paint jobs. Although the name stayed the same, the developers changed between consoles. As a result, the games are very different depending on the platform, but they often have similar features such as the paint shop.
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[edit] Game versions
[edit] Nintendo 64
On the Nintendo 64, Top Gear Rally features a realistic physics model with functioning suspension. At the time, this was an impressive new gameplay development. Road surfaces, including their imperfections, were accurately modeled to give the player the feeling of actually driving a car.
The performance of each vehicle in the game was unique. Not only with respect to engine power, but also areas such as tire grip, suspension stiffness, steering tightness, and between different drive-trains such as front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and four-wheel drive.
The game's graphics were considered quite advanced for a home console system, being better than the PlayStation's then-available offerings. Smooth, non-pixelated, texture-mapped surfaces, high-detail cars, and complex environments were displaying at a generally smooth frame rate. However, this quality came at a cost; the number of on-screen vehicles couldn't exceed three without game speed being impaired.
Because neither Kemco or Boss Games Studios had licenses to use the real car names, the car names are somewhat disguised within the game. One can identify the cars by either looks or by the fact that the disguised names are often almost acronyms of the real names. While the lack of true vehicle licensing is seen as a disadvantage by some, it also comes with the advantage of damage to the vehicles being allowed (although the damage does not affect performance).
The game features a soundtrack consisting of tunes with a sort of trance-style. The electronic XM music was composed by Barry Leitch, who also worked on Super Nintendo Top Gear releases.
The game's release was met with mixed reviews from journalists and gamers alike. This version of Top Gear Rally was also released as a PC title called Boss Rally.
A noted gameplay flaw with the Nintendo 64 version of the game is that it is possible for the player to gain an immense advantage over the computer players by riding the rails on the sides of the road in most tracks. The rails don't slow the car down nearly as much as normal cornering or drifting, allowing the player to maintain top speed even through very sharp turns. Boss Games' later N64 title, World Driver Championship, did not have this oversight.
[edit] Music
The Japanese and Europe releases of Top Gear Rally had a different title tune than the US version. The Japanese and Europe one was Hardcore Dance Music while the US version was more mild, with a piano lead.
[edit] Tracks
The game features 4 main tracks, plus an unlockable one. Each track has its own soundtrack, and the player can choose different climates (Sunny, Fog, Rain, Snow, Night) for each of them, except when taking part of a championship.
- Coastline
- Jungle
- Desert
- Mountain
- Strip Mine (Unlockable)
[edit] Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance version has 3D graphics considered impressive for the system.[1]It was released on October 31, 2003.
[edit] Screenshots
Nintendo 64 version
[edit] Sequels
[edit] References
- ^ Top Gear Rally GBA Review - Gamespot
[edit] External links
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